<blockquote><cite> Bev:</cite>You don't know how excited I'd get if I saw any of you hip & cool South/North Parkers out in my neck of the woods. Come on over to Lemon Grove - Finest Climate On Earth - we have bike lanes too!</blockquote>

Bev, I ride through there on my commute, or near by, usually hang a left at the Lemon heading down imperial. I've been itching to try a new route suggested by the new map program listed here that will put me on Broadway the whole way through Lemon Grove.

@William - I'd do the whole of Broadway route myself. I prefer it. I've done the Imperial to Market to Down Town route and I must say - not so comfortable with it. 5' tall female with Mary Poppins bike which is not made for speed. The Broadway to Massachusettes to University... is preferred for me.

Is your whole of Broadway route take you to Federal which ends into an official dirt bike/nature path that goes along the 94 for a bit to get you to the other side of Federal and into Down Town? Just curious.

<blockquote><cite> Bev:</cite>@William The Broadway to Massachusettes to University... is preferred for me.

Is your whole of Broadway route take you to Federal which ends into an official dirt bike/nature path that goes along the 94 for a bit to get you to the other side of Federal and into Down Town? Just curious.</blockquote>

The new route would take me up some street at the very end of Broadway. I've seen pictures of the dirt path, but am wondering how viable it is at 5 am?

Oh, to remain on topic: Saw no one last night. 540 ferry: devoid of any bikes except mine. No one down town.

Went over to Susanna's for dinner. She made the most amazing dinner which was like paella but less fishy. It was a dish native to her town in Spain. When I did a profile of her for my blog I found that we both have an appreciation for hand made food and we both love cooking from scratch. The dinner was especially delicious for those reasons...so much love went into making it.

We're planning to do some brunches soon (maybe women only)...the first will be in December. Whisper me if you have an interest.

She misses the rides and hopes to make it to the Down Townies on the 15th.

That place was crowded, though: Half an hour before opening the line to get in was several hundred people deep, and it took at least half an hour after opening before the line was cleared. Somebody made some money from running this - the SD Bicycle Coalition, right?

<blockquote><cite> Njord Noatun:</cite><blockquote><cite> William:</cite>I saw Sky and Anthony and Il Pirati at the swap meet.</blockquote> I, too, went to the Swap Meet, but did not see anybody from here.

That place was crowded, though: Half an hour before opening the line to get in was several hundred people deep, and it took at least half an hour after opening before the line was cleared. Somebody made some money from running this - the SD Bicycle Coalition, right?</blockquote>

Saw Bryan, Sky, and Anthony with his R100 at the Swap Meet. Long-time local cycling photographer Mitch Clinton and wife Kathleen bought a house on acreage two miles up a dirt road in Silver City, NM and were at the Swap Meet unloading stuff they can't take along.Mitch sold me a perfect '54 Columbia, black with aluminum Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub and front dyno hub with front and rear lights for $125. I was trying not to come home with any bikes, but didn't sell any and ended up hauling six home, plus a super nice 8-speed Shimano MTB wheel set with Bontrager offset rear.

The current SDVA Board of Directors just signed their exit papers. They voted 5-4 (Jolie objected) to pay Shaun Wallace $5,000 to run the event. That is five times what they paid a certain level 'C' coach to open the place up several years ago. Up until that moment $1,000 was the maximum ever spent on a Velodrome Swap Meet. The coach in question got bored at about noon and went home with his $1,000, leaving the exit process uncontrolled and failing to clean the place up. Chaos ensued and an unsupervised seller backed into Turn 2 with a trailer hitch, ripping a hole in the fabric cover of the track surface, still unrepaired today. There were reports of people driving cars around the banking with no one to stop them. When I arrived the next morning the gates were still open. It took me two days to clean up by myself. No one ever offered me a penny, even though I would have refused payment.

This year Shaun Wallace bought a box of red STAFF t-shirts for a group of paid employees. Only half were used. He also bought a dozen cardboard trash containers, ironically emblazoned with the word "WASTE," even though we have plenty of steel and plastic trash containers. The cardboard containers were tossed into the dumpsters.

Since SDVA usually collects between 9 and 12 thousand dollars at this event, $5,000 is about 50% of the take. The two Swap Meets are the main revenue generators for annual velodrome operations, so this unnecessary and wasteful expense will severely cut into the general fund.

Needless to say, Jolie will be demanding a full and accurate accounting of where the money went. Someone is going to have to prepare Form 1099 for all the paid staff to submit with our non-profit tax statement in the Spring.

If they are unable, as we suspect, to provide an accurate accounting report to the general membership, they will be in violation of state law and the California State Attorney General's office will be informed. The Velodrome Emperor will find that his aversion to playing by the rules won't save him this time.

$5000 sure seems like a lot of money. i've never once heard a call for volunteers before or during the event. surely there are people that will help a non-profit. hell, i would be willing to do events at my shop to help the fund if people are willing to open their wallets. a new surface and more childrens classes would be fantastic. heck, new bleachers would be great too.

I maybe? saw a SDbikecommuter out there tonight? Whoever it was, they were rocking a pretty stellar dual headlight system as they were heading southbound through Mission Bay Park and I was going north at around 8:30. Also I saw my co-worker, Steve, on the OB bike path, presumably heading to work.